Our favorite Wizard spells in 5th Edition

A wizard is only as good as his spellbook.

Other classes get their spells granted by their deities or can innately cast a few spells. But wizards get to assemble a verita

But if you’re playing a wizard, you get the benefit of a spellbook where you can record any number of spells from the seemingly massive wizard spell list.

If you’re like us here at Dungeon Crate, some of the most fun you’ll have when creating a new character is assembling your spellbook and choosing what spells to prepare.

Put a different way: Determining how we’re going to destroy the day’s enemies with fire, thunder and meteors crashing down from the sky makes us giddy with excitement.

Thankfully, Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition has some pretty awesome spells. We combed through the extensive spell list from D&D 5e to pick our absolute favorites - the most useful, the most fun and, yes, the most destructive.

  

Animate Dead (3rd level) - Have a big encounter coming? Cast this as many times as you’re able and command an army of skeletons (or zombies, your choice) in your next battle.

Catapult (1st level) - Fling stuff at your enemies. Hard.

Chill Touch (cantrip) - It’s a cantrip that does minor damage, but it has one major effect: Keep the target from regaining hit points until your next turn. Use it against big, bad, regenerating enemies.

Clone (8th level) - Want to safeguard against your death? This is your jam. Create a clone of yourself so that, if you die, your soul transfers to the clone. Then you’re safe.

Cloudkill (5th level) - Drop a nasty fog in a space, and watch everyone choke to death. Plus it moves. You could drop it right in front of you and let it roll across the battlefield.

Counterspell (3rd level) - As a reaction, automatically counter a spell. This can give huge advantages to any wizard who has it prepared.

Delayed Blast Fireball (7th level)  - Instead of a giant fireball, this creates a little beat of light. But when the spell ends, either because you decide to or someone walks into it, it erupts into a massive ball of fire. In short: You get to drop a tiny trap in the middle of the battle and trigger it whenever you feel like.

Drawmij’s Instant Summons (6th level) - Summon literally any item from wherever it is to your hand in an instant. There are limitations, including using an expensive sapphire each time, but being able to bring magic items straight to you at any time (from any place) could be incredibly useful.

Evard’s Black tentacles (4th level) - Squirming tentacles fly out of the ground, grabbing everything and squeezing them. Hard. Great to keep someone wher eyou want them plus do some serious damage.

Haste (3rd level) - Turn a fighter or rogue (or really anyone in your party) into an absolute beast with doubled speed, +2 to AC, advantage on Dex saving throws and a bonus action each turn. Woof.

Incendiary Cloud (8th level) - Appears to be smoke. Actually a hot, fiery, death-dealing cloud.

Locate Creature (4th level) - Simple but effective: Find what you’re looking for. This is the best when you’re seeking a specific enemy or creature.

Magic Missile (1st level) - Guaranteed damage is huge, plus it’s very effective against opposing spellcasters since three automatic hits means three concentration checks if they’re holding onto a spell.

Melf’s Minute Meteors (3rd level) - Six tiny meteors float around you until you decide to fire the explosive little rocks at anything you feel like. A simple spell that can do some serious damage.

Minor Illusion (cantrip) - Yet another cantrip with a minor effect - create a sound or image of an object - but it has no verbal component. You can hide, remain hidden and use this to distract guard and other creatures.

Misty Step (2nd level) - Only a second level spell, you can get this simple but effective teleportation spell early in your character’s progression.

Modify Memory (5th level) - There’s a million ways to use this effectively. It can create serious advantages in roleplay scenarios, bending someone to your will by changing, modifying or deleting memories.

Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion (7th level) - Summon a freaking mansion. Seriously. This spell comes with a giant dwelling, 100 servants and 24 hours of safety. You can slip away to safety, use it to camp in a cold forest or simply to relax whenever you feel like it.

Otto’s Irresistible Dance (6th level) - This one’s all in the flavor text. It effectively causes the target to lose their movement and be subject to advantage on all attacks against them. Why? Because they can’t stop dancing. Hilarious.

Phantasmal Killer (4th level) - Literal nightmare fuel, this spell pulls something from a creature’s deepest, darkest fears.

Power Word Kill (9th level) - Insta-kill. You say a few words. The target dies. Bam.

Simulacrum (7th level) - Summon one beast or humanoid that obeys your commands. Sure, there are some limitations (½ hit points, it costs some gold, etc.), but you get a powerful minion to do your bidding.

Sleep (1st level) - It’s a simple one, but boy is it effective especially when facing an army of lower-level enemies.

Thunderwave (1st level) - Push people around the battlefield. Especially effective if you’re playing on top of a precipice, tower or cliff.

Game Table Etiquette

It’s time to play.

Play means fun, and we can’t have fun if people are being jerks, being disrespectful or looking at Facebook instead of paying attention to the game.

Be respectful. This is the big one. If you’re disrespectful to the GM and other players, go ahead and show yourself the door. This is people’s time to have fun, to let loose, to try new things. If you’re a jerk, you’re not welcome at the table.

Try something new. Always playing that elven ranger with a pair of magic swords? Mix it up for once. Try a different class. Maybe a way different class. Go crazy and get out of your comfort zone.

Be present. Pay attention. Put your phone down. Engage in the game. It will be better for you and better for the game.

Be on time. This goes both ways: Starting and ending the game. No one wants to plan for a three-hour session that’s supposed to start at 7:30 p.m. but getting to play for only an hour because no one showed up until 9 and most of the players have to leave by 10.

Don’t be messy. First off, you’re at someone’s house, so pick up the crumbs and clean up after yourself. Also, there’s usually limited space at the game table so try to contain your rulebooks, character sheets, soda cans and dice to your area.

Don’t argue with the GM. Your friend worked hard to prepare for the game. You’re certainly allowed to object to her rulings, but do so briefly at the game table. If you still think she got it wrong, approach her afterward and present your case.

Be there. Life happens, but if you're not going to make the game, tell the GM at least a day before so he can plan ahead. There's nothing like hours of preparation for a five-person party only to have two people bail at the last minute and you have to adjust every encounter on the fly.

Be cooperative. If you want to battle monsters on your own, go play a video game. This is about playing together.

Respect the house rules. These are both rules about the house (only use the bathroom in the basement) and rules the GM made up for the game (+1 to anyone who announces their action at the beginning of their turn).

Put down that phone. Unless that’s where your character sheet is, leave it in your bag. You can look at memes later.

Share your snacks. This one is like kindergarten: Don’t bring food unless you brought enough for everyone. It’s a nice thing to do.

Bring all your stuff. Before you leave for the game, check to make sure you have your dice, character sheet, books, pencils, miniature and anything else you might need.

Don’t touch my dice without asking. You brought dice (or at least you should have), so don’t take mine unless you ask first. 

Want cool stuff to warm up your players or Dungeon Master? That's where Dungeon Crate comes in. Check out our site for treasures that will enhance your game on and off. 

Interview with Floyd Cocklin - Author of Whiskers in the Dark

Dungeon Crate made an epic team-up this month.

The boys at Nerdarchy curated August’s crate, and it is fantastic. The crate contains all kinds of nods to Dave, Tom and Nate. But the biggest is “Whiskers in the Dark,” an adventure in which you save a trio of strangely familiar dwarves from a dark and mysterious fate.

The dwarves are, of course, modeled after our friends at Nerdarchy. Our own Floyd Cocklin whipped up the devious adventure, and we talked to him about how he came up with the story, how Nerdarchy had its stamp on the adventure and how he designed a rather cunning trap.

Dungeon Crate: The adventure revolves around saving some dwarves, which are modeled after the fellas from Nerdarchy. How did you work Nerdarchy into the adventure?

Floyd Cocklin: When I was trying to come up with ideas for the adventure, there were three dwarves and a couple of other creatures to work with. I certainly didn't want to make the dwarves the antagonists in the adventure but also didn't want them to be completely on the sidelines. I figured a rescue adventure would give the players a chance to free some helpers for the last encounter and help turn the tide of that battle.

DC: The gelatinous cube trap is completely devious. How did you come up with that one?

FC: This is a favorite I've used a couple times over the many, many years I've played D&D, and it never ceases to surprise the players. I had one player who always played thieves and was always sort of cocky about it. They would do these dungeon crawls and always find the traps and bypass them, often by rolling to detect traps across every stretch of corridor in the whole complex.

I figured a little misdirection was warranted, so I put an easy-to-find pit trap in the last corridor before the treasure vault of a dungeon I designed. They were on the last of about six sessions in this dungeon and had figured out all the puzzles and traps up to that point. The rogue found the pit trap and didn't think to do a spot check *beyond* that trap. He did an acrobatic elven leap over it and slammed face-first into the cube, tumbling unceremoniously into the pit. He only took the 1d6 falling damage and thought he had run into a Wall of Force or something like that. Then they all heard the scraping sound . . . .

They managed to get him out from under the cube but it added a fun bit of tension to the end of a very long adventure where they could finally see the finish line.

 

DC: I also like the "coin of fate" mechanic. How did you come up with that one?

FC: I've always enjoyed the idea of magic items that didn't necessarily always have a boon to bestow — the quintessential D&D example being the Deck of Many Things. I wanted to put something luck-related into the adventure that may or may not help a character in a tight situation. They rolled a 14 on their attack or saving throw and so they're thinking "is that high enough?" So, they have to make a decision on the margin about it. Unlike using Inspiration, where they always take the higher of two rolls, this seemed like it would be appealing to players who like a little bit of risk but wasn't game-breaking.

DC: This is more a thinking adventure than a fighting adventure (for the most part). Do you like those kinds of adventures?

FC: Several years ago, with the coming of virtual tabletops, I got to play with my old high school friends again. I put together a massive dungeon crawl as a sort of "reunion tour" from not having played together for 15 years. And the players fell right into their old roles and habits from back in the day, which meant they could mow through traditional encounters like a well-oiled machine.

Back in the day we only did "theater of the mind" using 2nd Edition rules but the games were always heavy on action. With the tactical aspects available in 5th Edition and the ease of designing battlemaps on a virtual tabletop, I started thinking about encounter design in a more tactical sense. I think this adventure has plenty of fighting but it's not designed to be something the player-characters just mow through. All the best stories we have are about encounters with elements other than just smacking the BBEG until they drop. This adventure has a time sensitivity to discourage exploiting rests and puts pressure on the player's resources, like with the rust monsters milling about right from the start. Since most of the encounters feature a singular foe against the whole party, I wanted to put in elements that forced the characters to use actions for things other than just swinging the sword or lobbing the magic missile. This adventure is very much in the spirit of how I run my games.

DC: I like the open-ended nature of the adventure. Any plans to expand upon it?

FC: When I came up with the concept, I wanted it to be something in the spirit of the “Side Treks” adventures from the old Dungeon Magazines I had in high school. The players are between adventures and something pops up right in front of them. In this sense, the DM can drop it in as-written and have a nice side quest that they can run as a break from the regular campaign.

At the same time, I also wanted to leave it open-ended. I wanted to be able to integrate this adventure with some of the bigger adventures we have in the Dungeon Crate pipeline so that it fits seamlessly into the setting. For the October crate, I have some plans on how to expand it past the Mindbender's lair and delve into the yawning depths below.

DC: What else is down in those depths?

FC: The Kron Mountains have had a lot of uncharacteristic seismic activity lately. To the dwarves of Banduhr, this means the possibility of finding some adamant deposits. But there are things down there that have their own designs that will put a real kink in their plans.

DC: Vhulk'hys and his companions seem like nasty dudes. What are their aims?

FC: I've always been a fan of aberrations, Lovecraftian-style horror and grimdark games, so these guys are obviously lifted from that. Their minds and their motives are alien to the rest of the mortals and they are being driven closer and closer to civilization by whatever else is deep in the heart of the mountains. A city of dwarves seems like an abundant food supply for both themselves and whatever else hungers below. But their goals are beyond just mere sustenance, grander designs also await. Stay tuned!